Woman from Hoshiarpur village found 'murdered' on P'kula road

A young woman was found murdered in Sector 21 of Panchkula early Thursday morning.

Deceased Jyoti, 24, was a native of Bhunga village in Hoshiarpur district of Punjab. She was identified on the basis of an identity card recovered from her purse. She was pursuing BEd course at Shivalik Institute of Education and Research, SAS Nagar.

Police received a call from police control room around 5am that a body was lying on the road along with a bag. "The bag had her clothes and it appeared that she was going somewhere," said Sector 5 police station SHO, inspector Ajay Rana. "One side of her face was smashed, probably by some vehicle. There were no other injury marks. But the post-mortem is yet to be conducted. We have registered a murder case under Section 302 of IPC," he said.

He ruled out robbery as the motive for the murder since a ring worn by her and other belongings were found intact. However, her two mobile phones were found missing.

"A liquor bottle was also found lying close to the body," said Rana.

Principal of Shivalik Institute of Education and Research, Dr Satpal Kaur Grewal, said Jyoti had attended classes on Wednesday.

She was working for a security firm in SAS Nagar, said Rana.

Panchkula police later traced her father through the sarpanch of her native village. By afternoon, her father Bhutti Ram, a tailor, reached the police station along with the village head.